National Cyber Security Center

The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) made sure all Dutch government organizations are aware of a warning issued by the American and British security services about Russian state hackers targeting network equipment. The NCSC, which falls under the Ministry of Justice and Security, takes this warning seriously and advises all Dutch organizations to check their network equipment for erroneous configurations, NU.nl reports.

The Dutch government and businesses in the Netherlands need to work together to create a kind of national firewall to protect important websites and apps against DDoS attacks, five experts in digital security plead in an open letter, NOS reports.

Currently banks, telecom providers, energy companies and other businesses all individually hire security companies to help prevent such cyber attacks. But that is not enough to stop these types of attacks, the experts warn. If they worked together, they could prevent an attack one one company from having success at another company.

During the first quarter of this year, two Dutch government institutions and a company in the energy sector were infected with ransomware, AD reports based on information obtained from the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) by appealing to the freedom of information act. Ransomware is a type of malware that blocks access to files on an infected computer. The user can regain access to the files by paying a ransom, usually demanded in bitcoins.

With the parliamentary elections coming up in March, and warnings from American security experts that the Netherlands may be targeted by Russian hackers, Dutch parliament is focused on fixing cyber defense issues and increasing cyber security.

The D66 wants official European safety standards for devices that connect to the so-called internet of things. Devices that do not meet these standards should be banned, parliamenterian Kees Verhoeven said in an interview with NU.nl. He will submit a proposal addressing this to Dutch parliament next week.

Banks in the Netherlands have no plans to take extra security measures after two banks were robbed digitally in a short time. According to the Dutch banking association NVB, Dutch banks' security is already at a sufficiently high level

Internet service provider Ziggo expects that more DDoS attacks will be made on the company's server. Several videos, including one showing the infamous Anonymous mask, have been posted on the internet that threaten Ziggo with more attacks.

The number of reported cyber attacks on the Dutch government's systems and websites has doubled over the past two years. The National Cyber Security Center currently receive reports of an attack almost on a daily basis.

Yasmina Haifi has been conditionally discharged after her tweet that stated that ISIS is a Zionist plot to give Islam a bad name. The conditional discharge means that Haifi may continue to work for the Ministry of Security and Justice, but will be immediately dismissed if she puts another foot wrong.

The Justice official who tweeted that terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS) is a "Zionist plot", can not be dismissed. Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher (Social Affairs) made premature remarks about the tweeting official and thereby "disturbed" the labor relations.

The network outage that took down Rijksoverheid.nl and many other government and private websites on Tuesday was caused by a Direct Denial of Service attack, the government revealed on Wednesday. As the takedown was happening on Tuesday, a representative of the National Cyber Security Center told the Telegraf that they had no evidence of a cyber attack.

Several websites were unreachable throughout Tuesday due to a fault at the hosting provider Prolocation. Unreachable websites include both the government's Dutch and English sites, Rijksoverheijd.nl and Government.nl, Dutch blog site GeenStijl.nl and telecommunication firm Telfort's site.

A list in the possession of the National Security Center (NCSC) shows that 1.3 million email addresses that end in .nl were among the 1.2 billion log in details that were hacked this past summer. Email addresses of the Ministry of Defense also appear on the list.

Yasmina Haifi, the Dutch project manager who was suspended from her position at the Dutch National Cyber Security Center last month over a controversial tweet in which she called ISIS a Zionist plot, is no longer a member of the PvdA.

The Dutch official, Yasmina Haifi, who was suspended this week due to a controversial tweet about IS being a Zionist plot will definitely not get her job back. Minister Ivo Opstelten of Security and Justice announces today that other measures are being looked at, and that dismissing Haifi is not off the cards, De Volkskrant reports.

A project management official at the Dutch National Cyber Security Center has been suspended after tweeting that the terror group ISIS did not exist, and was instead a Zionist plot to stain the image of Islam. "ISIS has nothing to do with Islam,” Yasmina Haifi wrote. “It is a preconceived plan of Zionists who want to deliberately make Islam look bad."

The largest banks of the Netherlands will start working together after cyber attacks. Through sharing information they should be able to defend themselves better. Information is not shared at the moment because of competition considerations.

Dutch newspaper Telegraaf reported a cyber attack on Monday morning. Its website was offline for two hours on Sunday night and for half an hour on Monday morning at 9.00am. Publisher Herman Mantel said that the investigation of the newspaper showed that a DDos-attack was the cause.